Round up of the year

I have never gone in for New Year in the least. It is my mothers birthday today and, as a family, we always celebrated that rather than the date change. It is many years, I have to admit, since I have even stayed up until midnight, much more likely to be found tucked up in bed like a chaste old maid. So no doubt this year will be no different.
I also don't tend to go in for things like new resolutions. I have always believed that if you want to change something you just start immediately, there is no point in imbuing the date with a significance that it is going to help. Whatever works for you I suppose. I changed my life by simply making a decision and sticking to it, which had nothing to do with a new year.

Much more interesting to me is spending just a few moments reflecting on the year that has been, the highs and lows, the changes, the achievements. There have been changes in my attitude towards where I live. The first year I was here was about making my new house habitable. This year has been about making it my home. There have been disasters, a foot through my bath meant I was without a bath for over 6 months, but with a (hell of a lot of) effort, I have now a completed bathroom that I am proud of as well as new skills learnt in doing this myself. As I showed in my last post my garden has really come to something lovely this year too. That aside, I have not really done any more work on the house and I feel it is just about finished (or as finished as it can be on my budget). So I have used the time to fully settle in here and put down roots. Long, permanent roots.

Of course putting down roots has meant that there have been struggles in other ways. Leaving for months at a time for work has become a strain this year and I realised something very important: that although I had changed my life and moved to the other side of the country I had not committed fully to the change and had left my working life in the South. Well, of course it was slightly more complicated than that but I found the drag of packing a suitcase for 8 weeks at a time away from home in a place I didn't want to be, hours of driving and a whole summer away from home, is not the way I want to be so this year has brought a massive attitude change with all of that. Now I have fully committed to a life here I have no regrets, no doubts, nothing negative. Well that has to be worth plenty.

There have been ups and downs, new friends made, others lost. I have blogged (all be it sporadically at times) and lots of you have followed the journey. Some of you have gone beyond that and made the effort to check that I am alright at times of silence (you know who you are) and every one of my followers is appreciated.

Oh, and I turned 40 :-)

I think it is worth spending a few minutes reflecting on the year and looking forward to what the next will bring and I wish you all joy and luck over the next 12 months.

Nearly missed it!

Very nice to hear from so many people yesterday, new and old followers alike. I loved the desctiption from Jane and Chris that blogging is like a frugal coffee morning with friends coming in for a chat. It's so true. I have tried to reply to everyone who commented, just to say hello.

A year ago this week (last Monday I think) was the day that I got the keys to this house! So I have owned it for a year now and how brief that is, yet it feels like it has always been my home, I just didn't know it.

Although I got the keys a year ago, I didn't actually move properly until mid-January. I use the Christmas holidays to get started on cleaning, wallpaper stripping and painting, and slowly my home was born.

Living room before and after.

I would like to say that I knew the moment I walked in that this was the house for me, but that would be a lie. Usually I am good at seeing the potential of a house, whatever the state is, but this one was a stumbler. I knew it was right on paper, it had everything I wanted, but on the two viewings I had, I was unsure. Empty, uncovered floors, grubby and cold, it seemed pokey and empty of life and on both occasions I went away unsure and slightly disappointed, but then would look at it on paper again and realise that it actually ticked every box. I loved the views, loved the location, but the garden was empty and lifeless and the house seemed totally without love.

Kitchen before and after

But once I got my own stuff in, begun to get the dingy wallpaper off, and my colours up, give the house some personality it began to transform into my home. In the last 20 years since I left my parents house I have lived in 9 houses/flats and this is the one they were all leading to, the one I call my forever house, (unless life takes unexpected, exciting turns)

Bedroom before and after

I have worked really hard, every room has been done (except the bathroom) on a shoestring. I have done all the work that it was possible for me to do, alone and only called in help on really difficult or dangerous stuff. I am proud of the things I have done and if you knew how little money I had really spent you would be very surprised. Paint, elbow grease and a strong back don't cost much money. I have begged, borrowed, stealed (well free-cycled), I have used imagination and I have spent hours working on a project rather than buy something new.

Garden before and after

It is fun to look back on what I have done to the house, I am not done yet, the bathroom never gets photographed because it is SO hideous, but one day I will re-do it all myself (give me strength!).

I have big plans to convert the garage into a room one day, but it will be years until I do, woodburning stove would be a dream come true too.

But I keep my eyes and ears open for good deals, ways of learning new skills and cheap or free items to help me on my way. let's see what my second year here brings......

A year ago today........

I started my blog a year ago today, so it is as good an opportunity as any to look back on the last 12 months.

To say that the last 12 months have been a significant turning point for me is an understatement, so much has happened and so much has changed in my life.

I started a blog, like most people do, as a sort of online diary, for my own benefit. It is a good way to order thoughts and keep a record of things I have done or things I have liked. I just looked up my very first entry from 10th April 2011, which you can find here. It is hard to imagine that I wrote this while I was still living in London, still with this house I now own just a dream and when I was making my first tentative steps towards a new life style and goal. One year on and it is all different, but I am happy to say, that I have achieved a lot of what I set out to achieve and that is something I can be proud of.

I was inspired to start writing myself after being an observer on many other frugal living blogs, there are so many wonderful ones out there. When I got my first few comments I was delighted, at least what I was doing meant something to someone besides myself, enough for them to read it and write a comment. What I have discovered, of course, is that I am not alone in the way I feel about modern living, my desires and dreams for the future, something I had always felt a little isolated and alone about, suddenly there were others who understood these things and how lovely that was for me.

My life has changed for the better and every day at home I appreciate what I have done, what I have got and the joy that it brings me.

So it is with some irony that today, 1 year on, is the first day of a  2 month job back in London for me, leaving my dream cottage alone for some weeks. The city that I learned to dislike so much will once again become my home for a brief while.

However, lots has changed. Being here as a 'guest' is different from being here as a resident. If I have a hard, horrible day, with all the ghastly crowds on the public transport, and just by closing my eyes I can be back in my home. Knowing that it is all still there, waiting for me makes a very big difference to my attitude. 8 weeks will, hopefully, fly by and it will be an opportunity to catch up with those friends that I left behind here, all those that thought that I was mad and tried to talk me out of moving. Well, thank goodness I didn't listen, because I was right and they were wrong!

It seems fitting that on the event of my blogging aniversary I should perhaps set out some more things that I want to achieve in the coming year 'til April 10th 2013:

This last year, I got the house and got it largely sorted out. So, the next year will be a lot about the garden. I have good plans for it, because, although I want it to be a place I can utilise to grow food, it is also to be a place I love to be in. I have a plan and plenty of inspiration. Some if it costs money I haven't got yet, but plenty of it just involves hard work and imagination - I can do all of that.

My working life, well, I have posted a little about this before, I need to get some sort of balance between what I do, what I want to do and what direction I am taking. Not necessarily any massive decisions, but I would like to have some clue about what I want in the future. Perhaps that will all become self explanatory when I have lived and settled in Lancashire even more.

More practically, I would like to have the opportunity to live, with equal financial freedom, but able to put aside a little for savings. Not everyone cares about this, but it is a long time since I was at financial rock bottom - of course that was bound to happen this year, when I threw everything I had at this house. Now It is time to give myself that little bit of security that I like. I would like to start overpaying on the mortgage that I owe, so that I can achieve that financial goal of clearing it within the next decade and develop a small emergency fund.

One thing I would really like to do, is to learn more about foraging natures larder. I have used the elderflowers, elderberries, nettles, wild plums, blackberries and wild garlic and I feel confident with all of those delicious ingredients, but I want to know more. Sadly, being away in London will make my explorations of the country through Spring, few and far between, so I will miss a certain amount of the ingredients this year, but I am sure there is more through late summer and autumn, just waiting to be discovered.

So there it is. One year on and I have loved the journey so far. It has also been lovely sharing it with like minded people on here, so thank you for being followers, thank you for your much appreciated comments - sorry if I have ever missed replying to some, I try my best, but some fall through the cracks when I am busy. I promise, I enjoy reading every single one. And thank you for all your encouraging words and advice when I have needed it. Also thank you to those whose blogs I enjoy reading so much. Catching up on them all is a lovely part of my early morning.

Here's to another year of frugality, country living and happiness.

Foraging

Another lovely day yesterday before my friend left back to the States. Hopefully not another 9 years before we see each other again!
The plan yesterday was to climb the hill that I can see from my window. It started out a little frustrating, because, armed with my OS map, we set off on the path that was shown, but time after time we were thwarted by lack of signs, lack of path and too many brick walls that it was impossible to get over. Finally, after climbing over a fallen down dry stone wall from the cemetery, we found ourselves on one of the paths shown - well it was all worth it. Once we were beyond the houses and farms we found ourselves in open moorland, hills and rivers with breathtaking beauty and unbelievable views. Our plan was to walk to Watergrove Reservoir and after 2 and a half hours of wrong turns we got there, after a break dipping our tired feet in a beautiful river. Watergrove reservoir is really lovely, with small beaches and little groves of trees all around it. It took us 2 and a half hours to get there, but only 1 and a half hours to get back, once we knew where we were going - I've stored the route away in my head for the future. On the way home, we met a charming old couple who had lived here in Whitworth all their lives and knew the hills like the back of their hands and were able to give us a great route back that comes out really near my home. They also told us an interesting tale of how during the 2nd World War, the army had used two old ruined farms as target practice and how, as a boy, he had dug around the ruins and found all the old shells, using them to add weight to his home made bows and arrows. He pointed out so many different walks and routes in the area to us that my head was spinning and I was unable to remember most of them.

While we were out, I came across the tell tale smell of wild garlic and there was acres of it. We gathered a few handfuls to bring back for the evening.
We decided to make a sort of bacon pasta carbonara using the wild garlic and some pink peppercorns that I had picked and dried when I was working in the South of France last year and it was really lovely. The wild garlic gives such a wonderful and subtle flavour offset by the sharp taste of the peppercorns. A meal to be proud of and one made all the nicer by the foraged ingredients, the good company, the fresh air of the day and our sun-pink and happy faces!

Seeing my new area through another's eyes.

I feel like I have been absent for ages! I have been up since 5 this morning and have caught up on all your lovely blogs which was a nice early morning treat. I have had an old friend staying with me this week, one who I have not seen in 9 years because she lives in New York and it has been such a lovely time. I have not been working at all (because my departure back to London for a couple of months work is on 9th April)  and the weather, as you all know, has been absolutely glorious.
It has been a wonderful opportunity to explore my new area with someone who knows it even less that I do and it has been enormous fun.
On Tuesday we took a walk down Healey Dell, which is a nature reserve, local to me and spent a lovely morning following the river, looking for kingfishers (we found none), wagtails (we found one) and trying to spot fairies in the faries chapel (no luck there either). In the afternoon we wandered over the hill behind my house and to the reservoir.
Yesterday we went to Gawthorpe Hall, near Burnley which was such a beautiful building. Sadly it doesn't open to the public until this coming weekend, but people are free to wander through the grounds. We then had a cream tea in the tea rooms - essential for such a visit I think.

Gawthorpe Hall

We rounded off the trip with a drive to the incredibly pretty village of Barley, which nestles under the shadow of Pendle Hill, famed for its connection with the Lancashire witches. What a lovely village, highly recommended if you find yourself in the area. We paid our pound parking (which delighted us by being charged on the honour system) and walked to the base of Pendle Hill. Neither of us had quite enough energy or the correct gear to climb the hill, but I would love to go back one day and do it.

Pendle Hill

Today we are going to try and climb over the hills that separate my little town of Whitworth with Hollingworth Lake. It may to too far a walk, but  we will see how far we get. It starts with climbing the hill that I have been looking at from my living room window for the last 2 months and I have been dying to know what is on the other side!

In other news, my compost bin has arrived and last night I put in my very first load of compostable kitchen waste. It may not seem very exciting to most people, but to me it was a real event, something that reinforces a connection to the garden cycle and it felt quite significant.

Welcome to my new followers, there seem to have been quite a lot of you recently! Sorry that I have posted little of late. It is always nice to here from you, so please comment and introduce yourself, or just say hello, if you feel like it. We are a very friendly community!